Tuesday, March 25, 2008

FIT AS A FIDDLE !!!!!

Here is our boy, feeling so good again!

We snuck out early this morning and there was Racer with his evening salad all gone and his nose in the food bin! When we went to bed the night before, he was still forlornly tucked way back in a corner and would not touch any food. So .... it was such a great relief and happy time this morning! He continues to be frisky, eat right, and almost smile!!!! Thanks much for all the kind thoughts and messages. As you know, a bunny not eating is pretty scary.

We keep a bunch of cubes of frozen pineapple juice in the freezer. Not canned, but squished out of a real pineapple .. supposedly there is an enzyme in there that helps a bunny stomach work. At the first sign of this kind of distress, Bunny Lady gives the bunn several syringes of melted juice and a bit of an anti-inflammatory called MetaCam. You need a vet's prescription to get MetaCam, and you give it carefully, depending on animal weight. The pineapple juice is about three times a day, the MetaCam once. Racer had some juice and the medicine about 5:30 last evening and then some more juice about 9:00pm.

The syringe is a little plastic one about 3 inches long that holds 1 cc .. it is marked every .1 cc. The opening is small and the juice/MetaCam comes out easily. You can affix a needle to these syringes if you have to give injections .. ugh. We get a bunch of them from our vet.

Does anybody else have some good methods for treating the scary "doesn't eat or drink" syndrome?

keep on eating racer and keep on having fun^^it really is scary along with the bunn not pooping. my baby had an episode like that and it frightened the hell out of me. i always give fresh pineapple cubes ever since.although my hiro is addicted to pellets. arghhh!!

We keep a couple of cans of papaya juice on hand, and a tube of cat laxative (Laxatone) from the vet. We dose with some of the little syringes the vet gave us. That seems to do the trick--or it has the only two times we've needed it. Scary times when it happens though! Keep eating, Racer, and keep pooping too!

i just want to ask, if your buns ever had withdrawal symptoms from pellets?mine, seems to have such symptoms of having liquid discharge (pee?) if he doesn't get to eat pellets. i gave him timothy hay and fresh greens but he isn't fond of the hay (unless he has no choice) (T.T)

Glad Racer is feeling better. I have found that gentle tummy massage can help. Also just getting the digestion going with assist fed Critical Care or canned pumpkin. Both of these can be mixed with a little chamomile tea, this can help if there is trapped gas or tightness in the tummy. If they are only eating a little sometimes mint can help open the appetite. Ear massage can help rabbits too, just like with humans the entire body can be accessed through the ear. And what an ear it is!

So glad Racer is eating again! Thank-you for the fun comments back in January on Bountiful Rabbits. Ruby, the Amazing Molting Rabbit, is one of my 6 house rabbits. Not surprising, he is prone to G.I. issues when he is shedding. Dana Krempels article, Gastric Intestinal Stasis: The Silent Killer has been invaluable in treating Ruby and the other rabbits. I have a great rabbit savvy vet who has set me up with dosages for simethelcone, metaclorpamide syrup, and sub-q fluids. If I catch the G.I. discomfort quick enough, one dose of simethlecone often has the rabbit nibbling again in 15-20 minutes. If not I give a second dose 30 minutes after the first dose. If the rabbit is not nibbling in an hour I give a dose of metaclorpamide syrup with warm water. Krempel's article mentions a drop in body temperatures with gastric issues. I have found microwave-able heating disk very helpful. The rabbit is set up in a carrier with lots of fresh hay somewhere I can keep a close eye on him. I place a heating disk under the carrier and one one top and drape a towel over the carrier. If the rabbit is not improving within a couple of hours I warm up sub-q fluid to make they stay hydrated. This procedure has worked well in if it is a case of ingesting too much fur or my being too generous with tender,low fiber greens, or greedily gobbling their mate's share of veggies. Further intervention has been needed when the G.I. problems were caused a molar spur, (Pearl) or or when Emily ate the burlap underside of an 80 year old chair. Hope this helps. Thanks for a great blog!abradors

So glad Racer is eating again! Thank-you for the fun comments back in January on Bountiful Rabbits. Ruby, the Amazing Molting Rabbit, is one of my 6 house rabbits. Not surprising, he is prone to G.I. issues when he is shedding. Dana Krempels article, Gastric Intestinal Stasis: The Silent Killer has been invaluable in treating Ruby and the other rabbits. I have a great rabbit savvy vet who has set me up with dosages for simethelcone, metaclorpamide syrup, and sub-q fluids. If I catch the G.I. discomfort quick enough, one dose of simethlecone often has the rabbit nibbling again in 15-20 minutes. If not I give a second dose 30 minutes after the first dose. If the rabbit is not nibbling in an hour I give a dose of metaclorpamide syrup with warm water. Krempel's article mentions a drop in body temperatures with gastric issues. I have found microwave-able heating disk very helpful. The rabbit is set up in a carrier with lots of fresh hay somewhere I can keep a close eye on him. I place a heating disk under the carrier and one one top and drape a towel over the carrier. If the rabbit is not improving within a couple of hours I warm up sub-q fluid to make they stay hydrated. This procedure has worked well in if it is a case of ingesting too much fur or my being too generous with tender,low fiber greens, or greedily gobbling their mate's share of veggies. Further intervention has been needed when the G.I. problems were caused a molar spur, (Pearl) or or when Emily ate the burlap underside of an 80 year old chair. Hope this helps. Thanks for a great blog!

I'm glad to hear that he is eating again. I don't own bunnies but I do own a cat, so I can relate to the scary not-eating thing.

That pineapple treatment sounds very interesting - I didn't know that pineapple helps bunny stomachs! I would have to be very careful that I didn't eat the pineapple cubes though - it's quite yummy! :P